Related papers: Comment on: "2005 VL1 is not Venera-2"
Loeb & Cloete (2025) intriguingly suggest that the near-Earth object 2005 VL$_1$ could be the lost Soviet probe Venera 2. Here I evaluate the plausibility of such a claim against the available data. I have re-determined the orbit of 2005…
Recently, Seligman et. al. (2024) identified a population of near-Earth objects (NEOs) that exhibit statistically significant non-gravitational accelerations with no coma, and labeled them dark comets. Here, we show that one of these…
The solar system object 2005 VL1 passed close to Earth in late 1965. It has been suggested that it is actually the space probe Venera-2. However, a comparison of the orbits presented in this note demonstrates that the proposed association…
Historically, there is no doubt that the early years of the USSR space program put them way ahead of the competition (the USA). Nonetheless, although this was not what the Russians wished to present to the world, the interplanetary…
Long period comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) will approach Venus to within 0.029 au on 2021 December 18 and may subsequently graze the planet with its dust trail less than two days later. We observed C/2021 A1 with the Lowell Discovery Telescope…
We obtained two astronomical values, the Earth-Venus distance and Venus diameter, by means of a geometrical treatment of photos taken of Venus transit in June of 2012. Here we presented the static and translational modelsthat were…
Apart from Mercury that has no known co-orbital companions, Venus remains as the inner planet that hosts the smallest number of known co-orbitals (two): (322756) 2001 CK32 and 2002 VE68. Both objects have absolute magnitudes 18 < H < 21 and…
Quite exotic relativistic objects known as wormholes are hypothetical candidates for central machine of active galactic nuclei as well as black holes. We find the magnitude of the perihelion precession and the deflection of light in…
We show that when a single vortex convected by a flowing background collides with an oblique dark soliton in defocusing Kerr-type medium, it passes through the oblique soliton, but this process is accompanied by a considerable vertical…
This document is the EnVision Venus orbiter proposal, submitted in October 2016 in response to ESA's M5 call for Medium-size missions for its Science Programme, for launch in 2029. Why are the terrestrial planets so different? Venus should…
We analyze characteristic properties of two different cosmological models: (i) a one-component dark energy model where the bulk viscosity $\zeta$ is associated with the fluid as a whole, and (ii) a two-component model where $\zeta$ is…
As we become aware of Earth's changing climate, and as we discover terrestrial planets in other solar systems, we gain ever more reasons to study the Earth's nearest neighbour and closest sibling, the only Earth-sized planet besides our own…
The data of 2012 transit of Venus are compared with the ones of 2004. The thickness of the atmosphere of Venus, its aureole and the effect of oblateness and other asphericities in the figure of the Sun are taken into consideration, as well…
So-called 'dark comets' are small, morphologically inactive near-Earth objects (NEOs) that exhibit nongravitational accelerations inconsistent with radiative effects. These objects exhibit short rotational periods (minutes to hours), where…
A defining characteristic of the planet Venus is its thick, CO2-dominated atmosphere. Despite over fifty years of robotic exploration, including thirteen successful atmosphere probes and landers, our knowledge of N2, the…
The flat matter dominated Universe that dominated cosmological model building for much of the past 20 years does not correspond to the Universe in which we live. This has profound implications both for our understanding of dark matter, and…
Only astronomical observations can effectively probe in space-time the variabil ity of the physical dimensionless constants such as the fine structure constant and proton-to-electron mass ratio, \mu, which are related to fund amental forces…
The field of exoplanetary science has seen a dramatic improvement in sensitivity to terrestrial planets over recent years. Such discoveries have been a key feature of results from the {\it Kepler} mission which utilizes the transit method…
Recent improvements on the sensitivity and spectral resolution of X-ray observations have led to a better understanding of the properties of matter in the vicinity of High Mass X-ray Binaries hosting a supergiant star and a compact object.…
The tidal deformations of a planet are often considered as markers of its inner structure. In this work, we use the tide excitations induced by the Sun on Venus for deciphering the nature of its internal layers. In using a Monte Carlo…